A lifetime of Islands: Island 467 - St Michael's Island/Fort Island, Isle of Man

St Michael's or Fort Island is located on the south eastern side of Derby Haven bay and to the north east of the Langness Peninsula, the southern tip of which is the most southerly part of the Isle of Man. St Michael's Island is joined to the Isle of Man by a causeway at its southern end. There is a narrow road across the causeway leading to a large car park. The island is very popular with local dog walkers, not all of whom pick up the droppings left by their pets, so you need to watch where you are treading.

There are two interesting historic buildings on St Michael's Island: St Michael's Chapel and the Derby Fort.

St Michael's Chapel was probably built by Norse Celtic Christians in the early 12th century, possibly on the site of an early Christian keeill. It was constructed from local stone, including limestone, shore boulders, volcanic ash and agglomerate. The chapel is rectangular with a bell cote at the western end and a doorway on the south side. It was divided into three sections and was originally roofed with Manx slate, although it has been unroofed for at least the last 300 years. It is not known when it was last in use as a chapel. The chapel is surrounded by a burial ground, which is enclosed by stone and earth banks. The burial ground continued to be used occasionally until 1870 to bury the bodies of shipwrecked sailors and by the small Catholic community in the south of the Isle of Man.

Derby Fort is named after James Stanley, the 7th Earl of Derby. He made alterations to a fort, which had been built on the island in 1540 as part of Henry VIII's network of coastal defences. The fort was refurbished by the Earl of Derby in the 1640s, at the time of the English Civil War. He was a staunch Royalist and used the fort to protect the nearby Castle Rushen and the anchorage of Derby Haven against the ships of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians. In the 18th and/or 19th centuries the fort functioned as a lighthouse - a small turret was built within the fort and a light was lit on it during the herring season.

St Michael's Island is low lying and when I visited in early July 2019 there were lots of wild flowers, many of which were in bloom: sea mayweed, sea campion, thrift, tormentil, yarrow, bedstraw, sea beet, silverweed, melilot, white clover, hawkweed, charlock (also known as wild mustard) nettles and thistles. There were also lots of painted lady and meadow brown butterflies and several rabbit warrens, although I didn't see any rabbits. The island, which is just over 5 hectares in area, is criss-crossed with paths.

It is a good place to view the planes taking off and landing at Ronaldsway Airport, which is located less than a mile to the north west of the island.